Tag Archives: slapback echo

Ten years ago on July 23, 2003, The U.S. Registry of National Historic Places declared Sun Studios a historic landmark. Sam Phillips, a former radio disc jockey, established his Sun Record Company in Memphis in 1952. He had a keen ear for talent, discovering many important post-War musicians singing blues, gospel, country, and a new sound that merged them all together called rock n’ roll.

Thanks to NPR, you can take an audio tour of the studio where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ike Turner, Carl Perkins, and Howlin’ Wolf cut their first records. Find out how Sam Phillips’ trademark slapback echo was created. There’s no fancy, modern multi-tracking here–just a bunch of guys getting together in a studio, playing their hearts out to get the magic down on tape.

In 1955, Johnny Cash recorded one of his best-known records, “Folsom Prison Blues,” at Sun Studio.

He was originally inspired to write the song while stationed at a U.S. Air Force base in West Germany when he saw the 1951 movie “Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison.” In an interview, Cash said how he wrote line “But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die”: “I sat with my pen in my hand, trying to think up the worst reason a person could have for killing another person, and that’s what came to mind.”